Found — Visual Mood Board
FOUND · Visual Mood Board
Brand Viva
Brand Identity Direction
FOUND

"Hire on a positive Signal™, not a piece of paper."

Behavioral intelligence for the skilled workforce.
Competitive set
LinkedIn · Indeed · ZipRecruiter found for the skilled workforce
01 — Competitive Position
The LinkedIn for
skilled trades.

LinkedIn owns white-collar professional identity. Found owns the same for the 62% of American workers who don't have a degree but have skills that matter.

in LinkedIn
Incumbent

The dominant professional network. Resume-centric, degree-forward, and built for office workers. Their "Skills" features remain surface-level. Trades workers are an afterthought — if they're thought of at all.

Built for people who put their education on their resume. Not for people who put their work on their hands.
Indeed
Job Board

The largest job board. High volume, low signal. Employers post, candidates apply, nothing is validated. First-year turnover remains at 62% because the platform has no behavioral layer whatsoever.

Volume without validation. A firehose of applications with no way to tell who will actually show up.
FOUND
Our position
✓
Behavioral assessment replaces the resume
✓
Signal™ scores predict on-the-job performance
✓
CTE-integrated — meet candidates before they job hunt
✓
Free for students, paid by employers who benefit
✓
Purpose-built for non-degree skilled trades
02 — Visual Mood & Imagery Direction
Close-up: calloused hands
on a tool or material surface
warm, tactile, earned
Photography direction · Craftsmanship
Blueprint / Grid motif
FOUND
Visual texture · Grid pattern · Data structure
Signal Teal
#00C4A7
Primary Accent
Marcus T.
Electrical Apprentice · CTE Denver · Class of '26
Reliability88
Grit74
Coachability91
Learning Velocity66
Judgment82
Signal™ Score Card · UI Direction
Welding spark / close detail
high contrast, amber tones
warmth through craft
Photography direction · Trades craft
Deep Navy
#0F1E2D
Primary Brand
See what
resumes miss.
Trades Amber
#F0A500
Warmth / Human touch
Real worksite texture — concrete,
steel grating, worn wood grain
documentary, not aspirational
Photography direction · Texture / Environment
62%
of apprentices quit
before 90 days
BLS · Found addresses this
03 — Brand Reference Boards
What we're drawing from.

Modern SaaS brands that feel fresh, welcoming, and credible — the energy Found should live in.

Banking for small business
relayfi.com ↗
Borrow → Depth & Warmth
Forest green depth Cream on dark Clean dashboard UI Human copywriting

Relay's brand is darker and richer than expected — deep forest green with warm cream text. It feels earned and trustworthy. Found should borrow this depth for dark-mode employer surfaces, and Relay's direct, no-jargon voice for both audiences.

C
Coinbase
coinbase.com ↗
Borrow → Confidence & Weight
Bold type hierarchy Dark surfaces Data-forward UI No apologies

Coinbase never over-explains. The brand trusts users to handle complexity. Found's employer-facing surfaces — the Signal™ scorecard, the hiring dashboard — should carry this weight. Data-forward, precise, confident.

Cohere
AI for the enterprise
cohere.com/compass ↗
Borrow → Accent Courage + Icon Thinking
Multi-color icon system Dark forest green Warm accent pops Technical but human

Cohere's three-color icon (forest green, purple, coral) shows how a mark can carry warmth without being soft. Their dark green backgrounds feel deep and premium. Found's Trades Amber plays a similar accent role — warm, physical, unexpected — against Deep Navy.

04 — Photography & Imagery Direction
Natural. Airy. Real.

Images should feel like they were taken on an actual job site, not staged for a stock library. No hard hats posed for the camera. No cheesy office handshakes. Show the work — the texture, the focus, the pride in craft.

✓  Shoot for this
Close detail · warm tones
Hands on the work
Close-up of calloused hands on a tool or material. Warm, amber-toned light. Feels earned.
natural light · open space
Airy outdoor environments
Job sites in natural daylight. Open sky, wide angles. Feels fresh and aspirational without being fake.
dramatic light · high contrast
Craft in action
Welding sparks, a drill in motion, wire being run. The act of skilled work — dynamic and real.
texture · material · surface
Natural textures & materials
Wood grain, concrete, raw steel. Used as background texture — grounding the brand in the physical world.
✗  Avoid this
🤝
✕
Staged handshakes
Two people in business casual shaking hands in a bright office. Screams stock photo.
👷
✕
Posed hard hats
Worker smiling at the camera in a spotless hard hat. Fake, patronizing, and overused.
💻
✕
Generic office scenes
People at MacBooks in an open-plan office. Found is not for that world — don't look like it is.
📋
✕
Clipboards & paperwork
Manager reviewing paperwork on a clipboard. Ironic given our tagline — and just visually tired.
04 — Color Palette
Five colors. All the work.
Deep Navy
#0F1E2D
Primary brand color. Headlines, CTAs, backgrounds, the wordmark.
Signal Teal
#00C4A7
Primary accent. Interactive states, Signal™ scores, highlights.
Trades Amber
#F0A500
Warmth accent. Key stats, employer callouts, the human touch.
Warm White
#F5F3EE
Page backgrounds. Slightly warm — avoids cold sterility.
Stone
#EAE8E3
Cards, borders, and dividers on light surfaces.
05 — Typography System
Display / Headlines — Space Grotesk Bold
The signal
beneath
the resume.
Inter Regular for body copy. Clear, readable, at home in dense data environments. Space Grotesk Medium for UI labels and sub-headings — same family, different weight, consistent system.
Space Grotesk 700 + Inter 400 / 500
Signal™ Data — DM Mono
RELIABILITY ···· 88
GRIT ············ 74
COACHABILITY ··· 91
LEARNING VEL. ·· 66
JUDGMENT ······· 82
────────────────
SIGNAL SCORE™ · 82
DM Mono 400 / 500
Weight Scale
Bold 700
SemiBold 600
Medium 500
Regular 400
Light 300
Space Grotesk
06 — Voice & Tone
✓ Sound like this
"One bad hire costs $4,500. One good Found hire pays for 18 months of Pro. The math is simple."
Concrete. ROI-grounded. Trades employers talk in dollars and days, not metrics and outcomes.
✗ Not like this
"Our innovative AI-powered solution leverages behavioral science to optimize your talent acquisition funnel and reduce first-year attrition."
No jargon. No buzzwords. A plumbing contractor doesn't have a "talent acquisition funnel." They have a crew that needs to show up.
✓ Sound like this
"This isn't a personality quiz. It's 24 situations pulled from real job sites. How do you handle a foreman who gives you conflicting instructions?"
Ground everything in the real world. Make candidates feel seen, not tested. Make employers feel confident, not sold to.
✗ Not like this
"Unlock your potential! Discover your unique behavioral profile and accelerate your journey toward a fulfilling trades career!"
Skip the motivational poster energy. Trades workers are skeptical of hype and respond to respect. Treat them like professionals — because they are.
07 — Design Principles
01
Data has a face
Every score is a person. Design should humanize the numbers — never make candidates feel like they're being graded. Marcus's 88 in Reliability is a story, not a filter.
02
Precision is the design
Whitespace, alignment, and type hierarchy do the heavy lifting. No decorative flourishes. Every element earns its place. If it doesn't serve the user, remove it.
03
Trust before delight
Both employers and students need to trust Found before they'll find it delightful. Credibility comes first, personality second. LinkedIn learned this. We shouldn't have to.
04
Two audiences, one soul
Warmer on the student side. Data-forward on the employer side. Same voice, same palette, different emphasis. Found never splits its identity — it adapts it.
FOUND
Visual Mood Board · Denver, CO · 2026 · Brand Viva